Prepare for landing? Hopefully ... we’ll see
Chilling words of crash co-pilot before telling captain he could leave the cockpit
KILLER pilot Andreas Lubitz can be heard responding ‘hopefully’ and ‘we’ll see’ when he ran through inf l i ght l anding checks with the captain of his doomed aircraft.
His chilling responses came just a few moments before he encouraged Patrick Sondenheimer to go the toilet and took control if the flight.
Later Mr Sondenheimer is heard shouting ‘open the god damn door!’ as he desperately tried to break back into the cockpit.
Passengers screamed as Mr Sondenheimer attempted to smash his way in with a crowbar after Lubitz locked him out and put the plane into a descent.
But the only sound from the cockpit was Lubitz breathing as the aircraft plummeted at 3,500 feet per minute before smashing into the French Alps, killing all 150 of those on board.
The transcript from the plane’s black box recorder revealed Lubitz’s responses to the landing checks and him calmly encouraging Mr Sondenheimer to go the toilet. After Mr
‘Loud metallic banging’
Sondenheimer left him at the controls, he switched the autopilot from the cruising altitude of 38,000ft to 96ft – a move that was certain to crash the plane over the Alps.
German investigators have found torn-up sicknotes in Lubitz’s Dusseldorf flat which showed he had hidden the extent of his illness from his employers.
At least one of the medical certificates covered the day of the crash last Tuesday.
The 27-year-old was also said to be ‘living on the edge’ because he feared that his deteriorating blurred vision would cost him his pilot’s licence.
And his relationship with blonde maths teacher, named by German media as Kathrin Goldbach, was said to be in trouble, with local reports suggesting she may have been pregnant.
On t he i n- f l i ght r ecording, described in German newspaper Bild, Mr Sondenheimer is initially heard apologising for a short, 26minute delay in the departure from Barcelona, and promising to make up the time on the routine flight to Dusseldorf.
During s ni ppets f r om t he conversation, he also explains to his colleague that he had not had time to go to the toilet before they left Spain. Lubitz tells him he can go to the toilet ‘at any time’ in a tone described as ‘ laconic’ by French authorities. After completing their mid-flight checks for landing, Lubitz says to Mr Sondenheimer again: ‘You can go now.’
Two minutes later Mr Sondenheimer agrees to go, and says: ‘You can take over.’ There is the sound of a seat being pushed back and a click of the closing door
Shortly afterwards there is a loud bang, like someone trying to enter the cockpit. This is followed by a ‘loud, metallic banging against the cockpit door’ – believed to be Sondheimer using a crowbar to try to break in.
As the j et plunges towards oblivion an automated warning sounds: ‘Ground! Pull up! Pull up!’ The pilot is heard shouting: ‘Open the god damn door!’ when he realises they are moments from death.
At 10.40am – eight minutes after the drama began – the aircraft’s right wing hits the mountain. The final sounds are more screams from passengers as the plane disinte- grates and disappears from radar.
The speed of the crash meant that most of it was obliterated and no bodies have been discovered intact. A road is now being built to the crash site in the Alps near the French town of Digne-les-Bains in an attempt to help recovery workers and investigators.
Mr Sondenheimer’s grandmother, Marianne, told how he had dreamed of becoming a pilot as a boy.
She said: ‘My grandson is dead and all because of an idiot who did this to his whole flight and killed so many people. I just cannot under- stand it. How could he do this?’ Mrs Sondenheim, who is in her 70s, said her grandson was determined to become an airline captain, even as a schoolboy.
She added: ‘He was just 34 years old. Now this – I cannot bring myself to watch the news any more, it is too much to bear. A young man is dead with so many others.’
She said Mr Sondenheimer was a father of a daughter of six and a son of three. He had changed from long haul to short haul flights to spend more time with his family.
Peter McKay – Page 17